How Is Pain Influenced by Cognition? Neuroimaging Weighs In
How Is Pain Influenced by Cognition? Neuroimaging Weighs In
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DOI：
10.1177/1745691612469631
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发表时间：
2013-01-01
影响因子：
12.6
通讯作者：
Atlas, Lauren Y.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Wager, Tor D.;Atlas, Lauren Y.
神经成像可以在某种程度上为认知理论提供信息，即特定的大脑活动模式与特定类型的认知过程敏感而具体地相关。我们在一个具体的案例中说明了神经成像数据的实用性：了解认知对疼痛的影响。我们首先认为，疼痛自我报告往往不足以完全描述疼痛体验及其背后的过程。然后，我们描述了神经成像方法是如何通过专注于安慰剂治疗并展示对疼痛体验的最佳可用相关性的影响来证实心理操作对疼痛的影响。此外，以安慰剂止痛为例，我们认为，大脑证据对于建立可能产生有效和普遍预测的心理学理论是有用的，因为生物信息理论植根于相关生理系统固有的限制。最后，我们认为，随着对特定类型心理事件的大脑模式的识别和表征，神经成像结果将越来越有助于限制心理推断。在我们看来，生物学发现和认知理论之间的关系是基于经验的，必须通过跨研究、主题和方法的迭代综合过程来发展。
Neuroimaging can inform cognitive theories to the extent that particular patterns of brain activity are sensitively and specifically associated with particular types of cognitive processes. We illustrate the utility of neuroimaging data in one specific case: understanding cognitive influences on pain. We first argue that pain self-reports are often inadequate to fully characterize pain experience and the processes that underlie it. Then, we describe how neuroimaging measures have been used to corroborate the effects of psychological manipulations on pain by focusing on placebo treatments and demonstrating effects on the best available correlates of pain experience. In addition, using placebo analgesia as an example, we argue that brain evidence is useful for building psychological theories likely to yield valid and generalizable predictions, because biologically informed theories are grounded in the constraints inherent in the relevant physiological systems. Finally, we suggest that neuroimaging findings will become increasingly useful for constraining psychological inference as brain patterns diagnostic of particular types of mental events are identified and characterized. In our view, the relationships between biological findings and cognitive theory are empirically based and must develop through an iterative process of synthesis across studies, topics, and methods.